44 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



tent which I deem absolutely necessary for the success of the enter- 

 prise/ He then requested me to prolong my stay in London, and 

 to meet the scientific gentlemen who formed the expedition for a day 

 or two at his house, in order to impart certain instructions to them. 

 T did so ; and showed them many things which, I think, could not 

 fail to prove useful * to them in their preparation of specimens for 

 the benefit of Natural History. Above all things, I tried to impress 

 upon their minds the absolute necessity of temperance ; and I warned 

 them particularly never to sleep in their wet clothes. 



" I left London for Yorkshire, and from thence went to Liverpool, 

 where I embarked on board the Indian, Captain Balberney, for Per- 

 nambuco, in Brazil. Whilst I was on the other side of the Atlantic, 

 I read an account in one of the English papers, which stated that 

 the Congo expedition had entirely failed, and that several of the 

 gentlemen whom I had met at the house of Sir Joseph Banks had 

 perished in it. 



" In the winter of 1817-18, I was in Italy with my friend Captain 

 Alexander of the navy. During our stay in the Eternal City, I fell 

 in with my old friend and schoolfellow, Captain Jones. Many a tree 

 we had climbed together in the last century ; and, as our nerves 

 were in excellent trim, we mounted to the top of St Peter's, ascended 

 the cross, and then climbed thirteen feet higher, where we reached 

 the point of the conductor, and left our gloves on it. After this, we 

 visited the Castle of St. Angelo, and contrived to get on to the head 

 of the guardian angel, where we stood on one leg.t 



"As Captain Alexander and myself were returning over Mount 

 Cenis, I fancied that the baggage had broken loose on the top of the 



* " SOHO SQUARE, Saturday evening. 



" MY DEAR SIR, 



"I return your manuscript, with abundant thanks for the very instructive 

 lesson you favoured us with this morning, which far excelled in real utility every 

 thing I have hitherto seen. 



" Your obliged and faithful, 



"JOSEPH BANKS." 



t While in Rome Waterton laid before the Pope, Pius VII., a memorial on the 

 religious condition of the regions of South America, which he had visited. In this 

 he points out the decay of education and of morals which had followed the expul- 

 sion of the Jesuits. [Eo.J 



